Topic: synaptic engulfment

Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a highly heritable psychiatric disorder with disabling psychotic and cognitive symptoms and existing treatments are only partially effective in restoring function. Given the extensive elimination of synapses by microglia in the human cerebral cortex during early development, it has been proposed that excessive synaptic pruning may contribute to the observed reduction in gray matter thickness and synapse density in SCZ patients. We modelled synaptic pruning using patient-derived stem-cell-based forebrain organoids, containing innately developed microglia, and assessed mic

Neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) exhibit synaptic loss. In these conditions, synaptic loss precedes neuronal degeneration, and the degree of synaptic loss correlates closely with the severity of clinical symptoms. Both Aβ, which accumulates in amyloid plaques in AD, and tau protein which accumulates intracellularly in tauopathies, accumulate within synaptic terminals. In model systems, the accumulation of Aβ and tau in synapses has been linked to synaptic dysfunction, synaptic loss, and the spread of pathology trans-synaptically. Howe